Logo image
The Electrochemical Flow Capacitor: A New Concept for Rapid Energy Storage and Recovery
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The Electrochemical Flow Capacitor: A New Concept for Rapid Energy Storage and Recovery

Volker Presser, Christopher R Dennison, Jonathan Campos, Kevin W Knehr, Emin C Kumbur and Yury Gogotsi
Advanced energy materials, v 2(7), pp 895-902
Jul 2012

Abstract

flow cells grid energy storage supercapacitors electrochemical energy storage
Availability of grid‐scale electric energy storage systems with response rates on the order of seconds plays a key role in wide implementation of renewable energy sources. Here, a new concept called the electrochemical flow capacitor (EFC) is presented. This new concept shares the major advantages of both supercapacitors and flow batteries, providing rapid charging/discharging while enabling the decoupling of the power and energy ratings. Like in supercapacitors, energy is stored in the electric double layer of charged carbon particles. A flowable carbon‐electrolyte mixture is employed as the active material for capacitive energy storage, and is handled in a similar fashion to flow or semi‐solid batteries (i.e., for charging/discharging, it is pumped into an electrochemical cell, and for storage, it is pumped into reservoirs). This study presents the proof‐of‐concept of this technology and reports initial EFC performance data obtained under static and intermittent flow operations. The electrochemical flow capacitor is a novel technology which combines the rapid energy storage of supercapacitors with the scalable energy capacity of flow batteries. A flowable carbon slurry is employed, which is a mixture of carbon beads with high internal surface area, and different electrolytes (aqueous and non‐aqueous). A first proof‐of‐concept study is presented in static and intermittent flow modes.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Web of Science research areas
Chemistry, Physical
Energy & Fuels
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Logo image